Tech retailers keep it human

Published 11:24 pm, Friday, May 4, 2012

Photo: Nick De La Torre

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An Apple Store associate helps Margarete Owen decide what kind of notebook computer to buy as Owen visits the new Apple Store in Highland Village. The store features two Genius Bar counters where customers can get help with their gadgets. less

An Apple Store associate helps Margarete Owen decide what kind of notebook computer to buy as Owen visits the new Apple Store in Highland Village. The store features two Genius Bar counters where customers can ... more

Photo: Nick De La Torre

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Employee Tiffany Njoku plays a video game outside the Microsoft Store in the Galleria. The store has similarities to Apple's, but it has a different feel. Its emphasis is on big-screen gaming.

Employee Tiffany Njoku plays a video game outside the Microsoft Store in the Galleria. The store has similarities to Apple's, but it has a different feel. Its emphasis is on big-screen gaming.

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Rene Martinez, center, and Sean Petilla enjoy a video game at the Galleria's Microsoft Store. "It's an opportunity to play something I like on a big screen," Martinez said. "I wish I found this place sooner."

Rene Martinez, center, and Sean Petilla enjoy a video game at the Galleria's Microsoft Store. "It's an opportunity to play something I like on a big screen," Martinez said. "I wish I found this place sooner."

Photo: Cody Duty

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The glass ceiling on the new Apple Store at Highland Village makes for an open air environment, Monday, March 19, 2012, in Houston. ( Nick de la Torre / Houston Chronicle )

The glass ceiling on the new Apple Store at Highland Village makes for an open air environment, Monday, March 19, 2012, in Houston. ( Nick de la Torre / Houston Chronicle )

Photo: Nick De La Torre

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An Apple Store associate gives a workshop on how to use an iPad in the Highland Village Apple Store.

An Apple Store associate gives a workshop on how to use an iPad in the Highland Village Apple Store.

Photo: Nick De La Torre

Tech retailers keep it human

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Three days after he stood in line for an iPad on opening day at the new Apple Store in Highland Village, Joe Tate Jr. was back and peppering an employee with questions about it.

With the March sun streaming through the store's glass roof and amid the din of other customers shopping, learning and playing with Apple's stylish tech, Tate spent a couple of hours with a patient Apple trainer.

"You know, I could probably figure it out myself," Tate said. "But I bought this for my daughter, and I want to be able to answer any questions she may come up with. They offer this one-on-one service, and I figured I should take advantage of it."

Personal technology may be ubiquitous, but it remains confusing to many buyers. And so the companies peddling computers, smartphones and tablets are relying on a combination of old-fashioned customer service and technological wizardry to make their wares less intimidating.

Apple's intensive hand- holding for those who want it puts the company at the forefront, but others are experimenting in a variety of ways. It's affecting all of retail.

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"If you go into a Home Depot today, you'll see people walking around with iPads," said analyst Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a retail consulting firm. "All this stuff has done a tremendous job of facilitating customer service. You're now able to give the customer immediate information.

"This is enhancing the customer experience across the board in retailing."

National consumer electronics retailers take different approaches, blending high-tech with high-touch service in a variety of ways. Here's a look at how four chains with stores in Houston do it:

Retail experts say Apple is the top innovator when it comes to selling technology, and the company's bottom line suggests the approach is working. Its retail stores reported sales of $4.4 billion in the first quarter of 2012, up 38 percent from the same time last year.

Apple's Highland Village store, one of seven in the Houston area, has two Genius Bar counters where customers can get help with their gadgets. At a cluster of tall tables and stools in between, specialists conduct training sessions on iPads, iPhones, iPods and Mac-intosh computers.

The company has replaced traditional paper signs next to each device with an iPad sealed in clear plastic, with interactive information about each item. If a salesclerk isn't nearby, customers can tap on the so-called Smart Sign to summon one; it sends a message to the employees' iPhones.

There's also an Apple Store app for shoppers who prefer never to deal with a human being. It lets customers scan a bar code on a product on the store's shelf, pay for it and walk out without going through a traditional checkout process.

But here, even that process isn't so traditional. Apple Stores employees can scan credit cards on the spot, so buying something doesn't involve going to a central bank of cash registers at the back.

Best Buy

In March, Best Buy reported a loss of $1.7 billion for the most recent quarter; the CEO resigned and the big-box consumer electronics chain is closing 50 stores around the country. Many of the surviving operations will be converted to a new, smaller format called Connected Stores.

That's not the only change visible to customers. Best Buy already features training sessions for some products, LCD signage in some areas and scannable QR codes on product signs linking to more information. The company also has an app that lets shoppers scan multiple products for comparison.

Marcus Buie, who manages the mobile-phone department at the Best Buy store at Interstate 10 and Blalock, said the Connected Store concept will bring dramatic changes. His store will begin converting at the end of June. Two-thirds of the Houston-area Best Buys will transition to the new format.

Store personnel will be given 10-inch Samsung tablets similar to one he works with in his department now, Buie said. With the tablet, he can check a customer's cellphone upgrade status on the spot.

"We can handle a new cellphone activation in 10 minutes with the tablets," he said.

The physical layout of the stores will change, as well, with a touchscreen-based display for featured products. Best Buy will offer more in-store services similar to Apple's one-on-one sessions, Buie said.

And for buyers of smartphones, Best Buy has a Walk Out Working program in which a mobile-sales specialist will take as much time as needed to get a customer's smartphone set up the way he or she wants it. Buie said this program will be expanded to other devices under the Connected Store format.

Finally, Best Buy will upgrade its iPhone and Android apps for self-purchases similar to those in Apple Stores.

The lone Micro Center store in Houston, at San Felipe and the West Loop, eschews much of the high-tech trappings of its competitors. The store has the feel of an oversized Radio Shack, apropos given that the 23-store chain was started by two former Tandy employees.

Shoppers won't find much digital signage in the store, and the only interactive customer-service technology is a PC labeled FindIt to see if products are in stock and on which aisle.

But Micro Center is loved by Houston's techie community because it has hard-to-find parts, computers and gadgets at competitive prices. Its staff is considered knowledgeable.

Sales associate Andrew Huerta said the company prefers to emphasize the human touch over a digital one. Employees like him are hired as much for their knowledge and enthusiasm for products as their sales ability.

"We could have someone come in here who's the best salesman in the world," Huerta said, "but if he doesn't know anything about technology, we're not going to hire him."

Micro Center gives applicants timed tests in which they are quizzed on math and problem-solving skills, he said.

As with Apple and Best Buy, Micro Center also offers training, though it often is a lot geekier than an iPad how-to. For example, a recent weekend clinic explored the world of Arduinos, a kind of home-brew electronics movement.

Microsoft Store

Microsoft's 16 retail stores have been mocked for copying the concept pioneered by Apple, and at first glance there are a lot of similarities.

But the store has a different feel, with an emphasis on big-screen gaming.

Ferrell said that, like the Apple Store, Microsoft has decentralized the transaction process. But instead of using small handheld scanners, Microsoft Store employees carry tablets that let them perform almost any kind of transaction - from reading bar codes to activating smartphones.

Huge screens are everywhere. The side walls are lined with continuous displays, some of which are connected to Xbox 360 gaming consoles. Each Xbox also has Microsoft's Kinect add-on, which lets users control games and menus using gestures. There's also an Xbox on the sidewalk outside the store, and another in a mocked-up living room inside the entrance.

On a busy day, the store is full of people waving, jumping, dancing and punching into the air.

"It can get a little crazy in here," Ferrell said.

Dwarfing the games is a 103-inch touchscreen monitor at the back of the store, a space used for classes and training. The area can also be used by nonprofit groups at no charge. Ferrell said Boys and Girls Clubs regularly meet in the store.

"We are about technology," he explained, "but we want people to feel comfortable here."